Shelton School District Families,
I hope this letter finds you well. March is a busy month as there are many culminating activities inside and outside the classroom taking place and I wanted to share some important news about Shelton School District’s budget for the upcoming 2024-25 school year.
Our main goal is to ensure your student gets a great education, even during challenging financial times. Historically, funding for PK-12 public education has been a rollercoaster ride. Unfortunately, we are in one of those downward trends where there are fewer dollars for districts. As some of you may have heard, districts across Washington State are facing heavy budget cuts leading to staffing reductions and even closing schools.
Budgets are like road maps for schools that guide us as we work to prioritize inclusive and high-quality education for our students. To maintain a balanced budget, we know we must make changes. We are thoughtfully approaching these decisions to minimize any impacts on student learning.
Here are some things you should know:
- How We Plan: We have worked extremely hard over the last couple of years to move up the budgeting process so that schools and departments can strategically align their monies to prioritized activities under our strategic plan. Principals are currently developing their building’s budget for the next school year which is determined by student enrollment projections for next year.
- Working Together: Staff are working with their school or department leader to align resources to best serve students.
- Changes Coming: All school principals will have less money for discretionary spending in their budgets. Specific issues impacting funding are inflation and loss of federal dollars related to COVID.
- What's Next: While we are lean and need to stay lean in our spending, we are not facing an involuntary reduction in force or closing schools or programs. By working together we will weather these belt-tightening times.
Your patience and support mean a lot as we face these challenges together. Thank you for being part of the SSD community.
Regards,
Wyeth Jessee
Superintendent